“Life is a longer or shorter period of suffering, sometimes filled with joys and terminating with a certain death.
My life: well, it could have formed differently but I know that this card was assigned to me and I drew bad cards. There is a commonly used sentence that if there was a book about my life readers couldn’t decide whether it will end up as a tragedy or comedy.
Who am I? Currently I am only an invalid. Sick. Woman. A woman, who lives together with her mother and an Autistic boy, the son of her younger sister, but I raise him. Who I used to be is much more interesting.
I worked in the porn business. I worked in the erotic business. I worked in the night. I worked in the media. Still, I was forgotten within a week.
I am not proud of my past. If I could turn back time I would never ever become a porn actress.
I would be much more persevere and become an archaeologist.”
Mendi is a former porn star who lives together with her mother and her sister’s son, Richard, an Autistic boy. Mendi cares about them both. Mendi struggles with obesity and diabetes; she has lived on a disability pension since she left the porn industry. She doesn’t like going outside and mostly plays on the computer or cards with the family. Her mother Elizabeth is a pensioner who is always at home too. She likes watching talk shows on TV. They quarrel a lot with Mendi, mostly because of the lack of money. Richard is not Mendi’s son; he was left to her care by Mendi’s sister, who, after finding out that her son was Autistic, left him. Mendi loves Richard as her own son. The project is about the family’s complex relationship; about Mendi’s everyday struggles to care about her mother, her nephew and to bear the unbearable thing that is life.
(Viktor Szeri’s performance and video for the guided tour to exhibition ‘Dazzle’ (Lilla Szász: ‘Dazzle’, Gallery INDA, 18 May, 2016-30 July, 2016, video: vincze alina, szeri viktor, music: keleman)
Main Exhibitions (selected):
2018: Women in 3 Acts (Paz Errázuriz, Gluklya, Anastasia Khoroshilova, Ditte Lyngkaer Pedersen, Maya Schweizer, Lilla Szász), Gallery INDA, Budapest
2018: Women in 3 Acts (Paz Errázuriz, Gluklya, Ditte Lyngkaer Pedersen, Maya Schweizer, Katarina Šoškić, Lilla Szász), Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg
2016: Dazzle – Gallery INDA, Budapest (Curator: Monika Perenyei)
2013: In Kitchen. In bed. In public – Hungarian House of Photography
Publications:
Műértő, 2016 június, Debreceni Boglárka: Tárlatvezető